AAA-CPAThere is still time to register to join your fellow attorney-CPAs for a free luncheon on Tuesday, Jan. 23, during the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning. This luncheon is open to members and affiliates of the AAA-CPA and nonmembers who qualify to become a member or affiliate. You do not need to be currently practicing. For more information and to register, go to our Calendar of Events section on our website or click here to download a registration form.

AAA-CPAJoin AAA-CPA Past President David S. De Jong Jan. 18 for a two-hour study group webinar focusing on the new tax law changes and what that means for individuals and businesses. Click here to register for this informative program.

By Jason B. Freeman, J.D., CPA Republished from Today's CPA Magazine
The IRS recently notched a victory in the much-anticipated Tax Court decision of Avrahami v. Commissioner — the first micro-captive insurance decision to go to press. The court's 105-page opinion dealt a blow to the micro-captive insurance industry, which has been under increased IRS scrutiny in recent years. And with several similar cases still in the pipeline, some have questioned whether it may be a harbinger of things to come.

A captive insurance company is an insurance company that is formed or owned by a related business owner or group of owners. It provides coverage to that business against risks — risks that are often not readily insurable in the commercial market. A micro-captive is a captive insurance company that has made a qualifying election under section 831(b) of the Internal Revenue Code. As explained below, that section allows the micro-captive to exclude premiums from income. Where the structure works, the business is allowed to deduct the insurance premiums that it pays to the micro-captive, and the micro-captive excludes those premiums from income.
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BloombergFormer U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said the Trump administration's decision to add a significant amount of debt through last year's tax legislation is leaving the country broke.
"It's a ticking time bomb in terms of the debt," Lew said in a Bloomberg Radio interview with Tom Keene and Jonathan Ferro. READ MORE

ForbesThe alarm has sounded about the dire global implications of the U.S. decrease in corporate income tax rates that began with the start of 2018, raising the specter of the "beggar thy neighbor" trade wars during the Depression when countries slapped on high tariffs to protect their home turfs. Just days after the enactment of the new U.S. tax law, European leaders suggested they may challenge the move in the World Trade Organization; China announced it would slash its corporate income tax on foreign investment to zero retroactive to January 2017; and Russia proposed to eliminate fully its already low tax on capital repatriated from abroad.
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Bloomberg BNANormally, as each year comes to a close, most local taxing authorities are preparing to notify taxpayers of their upcoming property tax obligations and to collect those payments. Because of the recent passage of Pub. L. No. 115-97, local taxing authorities in high-tax states are closing out the year looking for creative ways for taxpayers to take advantage of the current federal state and local tax deduction that will be capped at $10,000 after 2017.
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CBS NewsWhat might the massive overhaul of the U.S. tax code mean for the American economy, job growth, wages and the stock market in 2018? While it's way too early to say for sure, some outlines are already coming into view.
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FortuneThe Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department will generally allow existing loans and other related-party transactions involving the overseas affiliates of multinational corporations to be taxed at the lower of two preferential rates, according to an official notice. The notice says the IRS and Treasury "intend to issue" new regulations clarifying how multinational companies must compute tax bills on the foreign earnings they have accumulated to date.
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CPA Practice AdvisorHave you read the new tax reform law yet? Officially called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the new tax reform law is more than 500 pages long, so we'll spare you the gory details. Most of the key provisions likely to affect individual taxpayers take effect in 2018 (for taxes that will be reported by April 2019), but are scheduled to sunset after 2026. Keeping that in mind, here are the essentials you should know about.
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